Colo-X visits to data centres in northern England

I recently attended a series of data centre visits in Newcastle and Manchester. Colo-X’s client on this occasion was a publicly listed company (plc) with stringent security requirements, and I looked forward to assessing what some of the key data centres in northern England have to offer.

My client’s colocation need, for a few low-density racks, was driven by the closure of a manufacturing site that also housed the disaster recovery suite for the company’s headquarters in the south of England. Associated network needs were fairly simple, and timing was crucial, as the existing site was due to be vacated by the end of the year.

Given the relocation of staff following the site closure, we agreed to focus on Newcastle and Manchester. This led us to explore Stellium in Newcastle and Equinix’s MA5 in Manchester. In addition, I was able to visit Datum, formerly Teledata, in the south of Manchester to view the progress of their new 4MW MCR2 data centre, which is set to open early in 2025.

Stellium Newcastle: a data centre with significant potential

This was my first visit to the Stellium data centre campus, and it was extremely beneficial to finally have a good reason to see the site in person. Colo-X have partnered Aspire Technology Solutions, who are based nearby on the south bank of the Tyne in Gateshead and have a dedicated caged space in Stellium.

Aspire are a rapidly growing IT services company with 300 employees and a £30m turnover. Aspire can provide the type of all-inclusive colocation packages Colo-X clients typically need . Stellium, however, is more focused on selling large-scale, so-called ‘wholesale’ solutions to larger users.

Inside Stellium data centre in Newcastle, September 2024

The first building in use on the three-building campus, Stellium 1, has one fully fitted data hall on the first floor, offering 2MW to 3MW across 1,000 square metres of raised floor space. There are three additional halls of similar size that can be quickly provisioned in the building: one more on the first floor and two on the ground floor. Power density per hall can be delivered to support specific client needs, hence the range from 2MW to 4MW per hall, according to Stellium’s website.

The existing data hall supports several clients, all in secure, dedicated caged environments, which appeared well suited to our client. Elsewhere in the building are dual-carrier meet-me rooms and the much-publicised cable landing station for the Aqua Comms-operated Nordic subsea system.

The site is supported by grid connections rated at 275kV, which are considered more secure than lower voltages such as 11kV or 33kV. There are also two empty buildings on either side of Stellium 1, which are believed to be of similar size. This supports the operator’s claim that they can offer significant additional capacity if needed.

Overall, Stellium 1 impressed as a purpose-built data centre should. If occupancy continues to grow – and given the available capacity –  it has the potential to become an important data centre hub for the UK’s regional market.

Recently there was news that American-based wholesale data centre operator QTS were looking at a potential large data centre campus on the former Britishvolt site in Blyth, 12 miles north of Stellium. So, momentum seems to be building in the far north-east data centre market and Colo-X be will closely monitoring these developments.

Equinix’s MA5 Manchester data centre: expanding colocation capacity

This was Colo-X’s second visit to Equinix MA5, having previously visited in May 2022, just before the site became operational. It’s worth noting that MA5, along with MA6, the second, larger (but still unfitted) building next door, represent the first data centres Equinix have built rather than acquired in the Manchester market.

MA1, the important network node housed in former Williams and Kilburn House, MA3 Joule House, and MA4 Synergy House (near Williams and Kilburn) were all acquired as existing sites through Equinix’s 2015 acquisition of Telecity. MA2 was also acquired but was released by Equinix in 2022 and is now back on the market via Lunar Digital.

Colo-X estimate that MA5 and MA6 can offer up to 25MW of capacity, making it the largest data centre complex in the Manchester market – and potentially one of the largest in the UK regional data centre market, especially for those focused on the retail market.

MA5 is now half-fitted, providing 4MW of IT load across four data halls, with the remainder of the building to be completed when demand requires. Unlike other Equinix data halls that Colo-X have visited or worked in, the data hall at MA5 was quite bright, despite Equinix’s continued insistence on black-coloured racks! This may be due to the light grey floor paint (a concrete floor without raised flooring) and the white ceiling, which made a welcome improvement.

The data hall offers open colocation racks as well as numerous secure cages of varying sizes. It was certainly impressive, as one would expect from one of the top three global operators.

Equinix operates a strict policy regarding minimum rack power densities and cage sizes (which vary from site to site). This means some sites are better suited to lower-density users than others, and Colo-X can assist clients with these details. Overall, MA5 presented very well, and it was beneficial to spend time with the Equinix team to determine how best to align their policies with our client’s needs. This should help both Equinix and Colo-X with future opportunities for our partners.

Datum MCR1 and MCR2 data centres in Manchester

While heading towards the airport in the south of Manchester, I was pleased to catch up with one of our most successful partners, Datum.

Datum acquired Teledata in 2022 and offer a rare combination in the UK colocation market by remaining focused on the retail and mid-sized market, and not scaling up to chase hyperscale demand. This will be reassuring to many Colo-X clients.

Datum’s success seems to stem from the size of their modern facilities, which are not large enough to interest hyperscale buyers but are big and modern enough to offer the same quality as larger operators. They also provide efficiencies that support attractive commercial terms, which appeal to many Colo-X users.

While Colo-X has added many new sites to our UK data centre database in recent years, particularly from regional operators, some of the older sites suffer from poor operational efficiencies. With wholesale power prices still around 20 pence per kWh, the cost difference for end-users between a PUE of 1.1 and 1.5 is significant.

Datum’s new energy-efficient MCR2 data centre

Datum’s new 1,000-rack, 4MW MCR2 data centre is set to be another example of a high-quality, ultra-efficient data centre from Datum. I’m excited about its opening in the new year, especially as it will be part of the same campus as the former Teledata building in Delta House next door. This means MCR2 will offer access to around 20 on-site carriers in MCR1 and direct connections onto the ever-growing LINX node.

Datum’s cross-connect policy makes it an attractive operator for ecosystem participants, who by definition run many cross-connects to other parties. Their ability to provide colocation, network and support as an all-in-one solution is exactly what Colo-X’s smaller enterprise users seek.

The data centre market in Manchester today and tomorrow

The Manchester data centre market remains the most important regional hub in the UK outside London and the M25, with about 25MW of existing capacity. This compares with a total UK market of around 1,100MW, 70% of which is in the London and M25 area.

With Datum’s MCR2 opening in 2025 and Kao Data’s 40MW Stockport data centre potentially due in 2026, Manchester’s importance is set to continue, underpinned by the city’s strategic network legacy.

The combination of the upcoming Kao Data site and Equinix’s MA5 and MA6 campus – plus focus shifting away from the constrained power infrastructure of west London – means it may not be long before hyperscale deployment reaches the northern England.

Retail colocation users will continue to be well served by smaller operators in the Manchester market, including Datum, Iomart, Pulsant, and the recently arrived Atlas Edge. As always, contact us to find out which operator may best suit your specific needs.

For independent advice on data centres in northern England and across the UK, and for colocation pricing from quarter racks upwards, just fill in our quote request form, or call or email us.call or email us.